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How to write better posts 
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Joined: Tue May 03, 2011 6:06 pm
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Post How to write better posts
All of us can write better posts, and all it takes is a little effort. Here are some steps I use to improve my posts. I do this all the time, because improving oneself is a life-long effort.

1. Clarity is the goal. Be as clear as you possibly can. No one here can read your mind. We can only read your words, so choose them carefully. This is the most important thing you can do. You are trying to move an idea from your mind into many other different minds. It's not as easy as you might think.

2. Learn your language! English is my native language, and I still don't know it. I often look up information online about the English language whenever I suspect that I am making a mistake. The rules of any language are there to help ensure clarity. Learn them. Start with the common errors and learn not to make them. For example, know when to properly use the following:

  • its and it's
  • your and you're
  • lose and loose
  • here and hear
  • site, cite, and sight
  • there, they're, and their

3. Get feedback. If you can get someone to proofread your post, do it. Just reading it aloud to someone will help you catch errors. Always proof it again yourself. You can often catch errors you would normally be blind to if you read it like a monotone robot, focusing on each word for the same amount of time.

4. Spell check your post! The Firefox browser has real-time spell checking built in, which I love. Sometimes I use a word processing program which checks grammar and spelling, which also allows me to save my post to a file for archiving before cutting and pasting it into the forum editor. You do know how to cut and paste text, right? If not, it's a skill worth mastering, and it's easy to do.

Note that many errors are not caught by spelling and grammar checkers! For example, I originally had "possible" instead of "possibly" in the second sentence of step 1, and none of my software tools caught it. My robotic proofreading did, however.

There's much more to learn, and that's why I'm starting this thread. Post your hints, tips, annoyances, discoveries, and suggestions here regarding writing better. We can all learn from each other. If we're going to wake up the sheeple, we have to communicate with them in a clear and concise way so that they will “get it” quickly. Communication is the key. Learn to be a good communicator. Con-artists are always good communicators, and look how well it works for them. We have to use the same technique to turn the sheeple back into people!

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Sat Aug 11, 2012 9:28 pm
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Post Re: How to write better posts
It doesn't help that English is so convoluted and illogical, which is why trying to learn it is a life-long challenge. I suspect all languages are equally challenging.

When I was a very young boy, just learning to ride a tricycle, I asked my father to fix the seat for me. "Do you want me to lower it?" he asked. "No." I replied, "I want you to higher it."

Doesn't that make more sense than "I want you to raise it"? We raise children, don't we? And don't we hire employees?

Here's one that irks me. If the past tense of lead is led, why isn't the past tense of read red? But no, the past tense of read is read, so why can't the past tense of lead be lead? Because red is a color, and lead is a metal? Now I'm really confused...

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It's not that we can't handle the truth. It's that they can't handle us if we know the truth.


Sun Aug 12, 2012 5:29 pm
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